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MaddAddam
(MaddAddam #3)
by
A man-made plague has swept the earth, but a small group survives, along with the green-eyed Crakers – a gentle species bio-engineered to replace humans. Toby, onetime member of the Gods Gardeners and expert in mushrooms and bees, is still in love with street-smart Zeb, who has an interesting past. The Crakers’ reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is hallucinating; Amanda
...more
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Hardcover, Deckle Edge, 394 pages
Published
September 3rd 2013
by Nan A. Talese
(first published August 29th 2013)
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Start your review of MaddAddam (MaddAddam, #3)

Oh, dear. Okay. It's only fair that I say something about this novel since karen was kindly enough to gift me the ARC so I could read it before it came out, but you should know that a large part of me doesn't even want to discuss this because like you, I went to grade school and had it drilled in my head that if you can't think of something nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. I have of course strayed wildly from that path as a grownup-ish humanoid, but this is Margaret Atwood we're t
...more

Yeah, that was also fantastic. I cried buckets at the end. Jesus.
O&C is the male story -- all sex and longing, invention and death (look, I'm just telling you what I see). Flood is like the women's side -- lots more better women characters, but also lots of sexual violence. Friendship, salvation, vulnerability, hedgewitchery.
(And lots of hot pink. Trust me, it works.)
But MaddAddam is more like -- the male story again, but the woman observing and commenting on it, and it's entwined with her own - ...more
O&C is the male story -- all sex and longing, invention and death (look, I'm just telling you what I see). Flood is like the women's side -- lots more better women characters, but also lots of sexual violence. Friendship, salvation, vulnerability, hedgewitchery.
(And lots of hot pink. Trust me, it works.)
But MaddAddam is more like -- the male story again, but the woman observing and commenting on it, and it's entwined with her own - ...more

At first, I was disappointed. Where were the epic final confrontations? Where was the catharsis, after two novels of terrifying, complex build-up? A third of the way through, it hit me: none of that actually matters to the novel. The entire "final battle" is almost an afterthought, compared to the main themes of hope rising from the ashes, the power of love & loyalty, and the fact that human civilization adapts...spitting proudly in the eye of dystopia. This is a story about "telling" the storie
...more

Aug 09, 2013
Emily
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
post-apocalyptic-dystopian
I have never been this unimpressed with a Margaret Atwood novel. MaddAddam is a tedious slog through the events of Oryx and Crake - again. While this technique worked incredibly well in The Year of the Flood, providing context for much of the events and letting the female characters flip Jimmy's story on its head, MaddAddam totally fails to provide anything new or interesting in its backstory.
You might think that, now that all of the characters have met up after the end of the world, there woul ...more
You might think that, now that all of the characters have met up after the end of the world, there woul ...more

Mar 11, 2013
Annet
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
apocalyptic,
dark,
favorite-author,
literature-pure,
fantasy,
wilderness-books-can-usa,
weird,
age-ing
I was so excited about this last book of the MaddAddam trilogy and I saw the book in Waterstones couple of weeks in hardcover. I could not resist.... and read!
I read the reviews and saw that some readers were somewhat disappointed about this final MaddAddam. I really don't care.... I am amazed still by the content, imagination and cleverness of this story and this great writer.
Yes the first book was amazing, mindboggling, what's happening here... the second book shocking and up close & personal ...more
I read the reviews and saw that some readers were somewhat disappointed about this final MaddAddam. I really don't care.... I am amazed still by the content, imagination and cleverness of this story and this great writer.
Yes the first book was amazing, mindboggling, what's happening here... the second book shocking and up close & personal ...more

I have completion anxiety, or whatever it's called. If it's a trilogy of books we are talking about, YES, it WILL take me YEARS to complete. Thankfully, Maddaddam book three immediately reminds you of why you fell in love with Atwood's postapocalyptic world in the first place.
It has parts of "Oryx and Crake" & "Year of the Flood" in it... the former a sprawling genesis of the apocalypse, the latter a more personal tale of what it takes to survive it. Maddaddam contains a mixture of both (there i ...more
It has parts of "Oryx and Crake" & "Year of the Flood" in it... the former a sprawling genesis of the apocalypse, the latter a more personal tale of what it takes to survive it. Maddaddam contains a mixture of both (there i ...more

Some questions are best left unanswered, and some endings are better off unwritten because sometimes the question itself is what makes the piece so extraordinary. Revealing what happens next could only ever be disappointing.
This felt like a massive overwrite. Atwood is only joining the dots here, piecing together the threads of storytelling and character arcs left open from the previous two instalments (that were only ever vaguely related to each other.) It’s like a forced conclusion as it’s al ...more
This felt like a massive overwrite. Atwood is only joining the dots here, piecing together the threads of storytelling and character arcs left open from the previous two instalments (that were only ever vaguely related to each other.) It’s like a forced conclusion as it’s al ...more

“People need such stories, because however dark, a darkness with voices in it is better than a silent void.”
After enjoying the first two books in the series so well (Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood), I had some apprehension about Margaret Atwood's final book in the series, MaddAddam. This book takes up where both of the first two books end, and follows what is ostensibly the last remnant of humanity as we had known it (along with the genetically engineered humanoids known as Crakers). ...more

After enjoying the first two books in the series so well (Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood), I had some apprehension about Margaret Atwood's final book in the series, MaddAddam. This book takes up where both of the first two books end, and follows what is ostensibly the last remnant of humanity as we had known it (along with the genetically engineered humanoids known as Crakers). ...more

Ok, MaddAddam!
Let me say straight away that I don't like sequels that much. But then again, I didn't like dystopian fiction at all before I read "Oryx and Crake" some 10 years ago. After "The Year of the Flood" came out 4 years ago, I found myself unable to wait for the paperback version, and I didn't even consider waiting when "MaddAddam" was announced.
I don't know what I expected and I think I should probably re-read the first two books to grasp all ideas in MaddAddam, but my instant feeling ...more
Let me say straight away that I don't like sequels that much. But then again, I didn't like dystopian fiction at all before I read "Oryx and Crake" some 10 years ago. After "The Year of the Flood" came out 4 years ago, I found myself unable to wait for the paperback version, and I didn't even consider waiting when "MaddAddam" was announced.
I don't know what I expected and I think I should probably re-read the first two books to grasp all ideas in MaddAddam, but my instant feeling ...more

before reading: May I tell you about my borderline-psychotic quest to score an advance proof of this book?
It involved contacting literally every single person on GR who had reviewed this pre-publication, in order to prostrate myself and beg them to loan me their copy. Of those who dignified my crazy request with a response, a few had been given advance editions on the promise of never sharing them, and the rest had read it in e-galleys, which fuck that. And anyway, those like disappear as soon a ...more
It involved contacting literally every single person on GR who had reviewed this pre-publication, in order to prostrate myself and beg them to loan me their copy. Of those who dignified my crazy request with a response, a few had been given advance editions on the promise of never sharing them, and the rest had read it in e-galleys, which fuck that. And anyway, those like disappear as soon a ...more

I wish I hadn't been so disappointed in this book. Why was I so disappointed in this book? I finished it Saturday night and haven't really been able to gather the brain power to assign any words to this. Yesterday I read though some of the reviews and found many of the things that bothered me articulated much more clearly by other reviewers here:
Badass Toby became lovesick high school girl Toby, whose entire identity seems to grow from her love interest. WTF feminist writer Margaret Atwood?
Jimmy ...more
Badass Toby became lovesick high school girl Toby, whose entire identity seems to grow from her love interest. WTF feminist writer Margaret Atwood?
Jimmy ...more

Why?
I read this because I enjoy Atwood's varied writing, I like reading dystopian and speculative fiction, and the the preceding two books in this trilogy were excellent, in different ways.
#1 Oryx and Crake reviewed here 4*: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
#2 Year of the Flood reviewed here 4*: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
#3 MaddAddam only 2*.
I read each within a year or so of publication and didn't know it was planned as a trilogy until I finished the second. The first work ...more
I read this because I enjoy Atwood's varied writing, I like reading dystopian and speculative fiction, and the the preceding two books in this trilogy were excellent, in different ways.
#1 Oryx and Crake reviewed here 4*: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
#2 Year of the Flood reviewed here 4*: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
#3 MaddAddam only 2*.
I read each within a year or so of publication and didn't know it was planned as a trilogy until I finished the second. The first work ...more

I delighted in this “Back to the Future” visit to the post-apocalyptic world populated a few human survivors of a man-made plague. In essence, the first in the series, “Oryx and Crake”, focused on the motive and method by which Crake caused the plague and led the creation of a genetically modified form of human, who like bonobos are dedicated to making love not war and can live by grazing kudzu. “The Year of the Flood” focused on the aftermath of the plague and the survival efforts of an eco-cul
...more

I seem to be in the minority here, but I...very much did not love this. I mean, a disappointing Margaret Atwood book is still better than most other things published, but this was not at all the conclusion to the series I was hoping for.
(view spoiler) ...more
(view spoiler) ...more

This is the story of a book. The book is called MaddAddam.
The book completes the story (in three books) of the making of the Great Emptiness in the world that we two-skins (clothes being our second skin) live in, the world of the twenty-first century. And how this world developed in the decades ahead of where we are now. (I have warned you that we are called two-skins in the story, at least by the new inhabitants of earth, but I will just call us people sometimes.)
That story of the world develop ...more
The book completes the story (in three books) of the making of the Great Emptiness in the world that we two-skins (clothes being our second skin) live in, the world of the twenty-first century. And how this world developed in the decades ahead of where we are now. (I have warned you that we are called two-skins in the story, at least by the new inhabitants of earth, but I will just call us people sometimes.)
That story of the world develop ...more

"There's the story, then there's the real story, then there's the story of how the story came to be told. Then there's what you leave out of the story. Which is part of the story too."
Preach, Mother Atwood. This past week has had me reimmersed into the MaddAddam trilogy, starting with a fifth re-read of Oryx and Crake since we discussed it for an SFF Audio podcast. (That was a great discussion, by the way. It answered some questions that I've had for years. Years!)
When you read all the books of ...more
Preach, Mother Atwood. This past week has had me reimmersed into the MaddAddam trilogy, starting with a fifth re-read of Oryx and Crake since we discussed it for an SFF Audio podcast. (That was a great discussion, by the way. It answered some questions that I've had for years. Years!)
When you read all the books of ...more

I'm glad I finished Atwood's dystopian adventure trilogy, but this final volume was easily the weakest of the three books.
It concerns the pandemic survivors of Books One (Oryx And Crake) and Two (The Year Of The Flood): most importantly, Jimmy (Snowman), Toby, Ren, Amanda, Zeb and the beautiful naked Children of Crake (or Crakers), a new race genetically engineered by Jimmy's brilliant childhood friend Glenn (a.k.a. Crake). In addition to packs of dangerous animal hybrids, there are also two ve ...more
It concerns the pandemic survivors of Books One (Oryx And Crake) and Two (The Year Of The Flood): most importantly, Jimmy (Snowman), Toby, Ren, Amanda, Zeb and the beautiful naked Children of Crake (or Crakers), a new race genetically engineered by Jimmy's brilliant childhood friend Glenn (a.k.a. Crake). In addition to packs of dangerous animal hybrids, there are also two ve ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

It's already happening!
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36437428
I've said it before, but that won't stop me saying it again: Atwood writes real people, which in my (admittedly extremely limited) experience of speculative fiction is as rare as a butterfly in an Arctic wind tunnel.
A completely satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, which gives the fast-paced back story of MaddAddam and edges the action forward to the final confrontation between the goodies and the baddies. There is an utterly amazing ...more
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36437428
I've said it before, but that won't stop me saying it again: Atwood writes real people, which in my (admittedly extremely limited) experience of speculative fiction is as rare as a butterfly in an Arctic wind tunnel.
A completely satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, which gives the fast-paced back story of MaddAddam and edges the action forward to the final confrontation between the goodies and the baddies. There is an utterly amazing ...more

Really great conclusion to an amazing trilogy. Atwood is a goddess of literature.
Ten years after the release of the first book in the Maddaddam trilogy (Oryx and Crake) and four years after the release of the second book in the trilogy (Year of the Flood), Margaret Atwood releases the final book in her apocalyptic/post-apocalypse series – Maddaddam. When Atwood first released Oryx and Crake, the post-apocalypse wasn’t as fun and romanticized as it is right now – hard to imagine I know but ….: th ...more
Ten years after the release of the first book in the Maddaddam trilogy (Oryx and Crake) and four years after the release of the second book in the trilogy (Year of the Flood), Margaret Atwood releases the final book in her apocalyptic/post-apocalypse series – Maddaddam. When Atwood first released Oryx and Crake, the post-apocalypse wasn’t as fun and romanticized as it is right now – hard to imagine I know but ….: th ...more

MaddAddam is the final installment in what has come to be known as the MaddAddam Trilogy. Margaret Atwood refers to it as a piece of speculative fiction because "...it does not include any technologies or biobeings that do not already exist, are under construction, or are not possible in theory." It can be read and admired on its own terms, but a reader unfamiliar with her earlier works, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, would be wise to at least read their Wikipedia entries before readi
...more

“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. …And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. …And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou
...more

My but I do love Atwood!! The depth and scope and imagination on this author is amazing. How to come up with the term "waterless flood" as a euphemism for pandemic virus that destroys mankind. A virus created as a powerplay for corporate oil and religion in tandem. People battling on a global scale destroying the human race and playing God at the same time, with the creation of a new race. And through it all Atwood has observations filled with great cynicism and hopefulness at the same time. I t
...more

2.5*
This is a combined review of the trilogy. Well, not so much a review as just a few thoughts.
"But hatred and viciousness are addictive. You can get high on them. Once you've had a little, you start shaking if you don't get more."
When Oryx & Crake was first published, I could not put it down. It was my first Atwood, none of my friends knew about her (I was still at uni at the time) and people thought I was on the crazy train when it didn't win the Booker.
Strangely, my impressions of Oryx & Cr ...more
This is a combined review of the trilogy. Well, not so much a review as just a few thoughts.
"But hatred and viciousness are addictive. You can get high on them. Once you've had a little, you start shaking if you don't get more."
When Oryx & Crake was first published, I could not put it down. It was my first Atwood, none of my friends knew about her (I was still at uni at the time) and people thought I was on the crazy train when it didn't win the Booker.
Strangely, my impressions of Oryx & Cr ...more

It's impossible to recommend this book without recommending the entire trilogy, which I do with enthusiasm. Not many of my friends are interested in dystopian literature and I understand that -- you really have to dig to find the best of the genre. However, as the author has pointed out, everything in the series is plausible as an extension of things that already exist in our world today -- gene splicing, technology, mind and body altering techniques, surveillance et al. But what makes it all so
...more

I totally agree to Paquita Maria Sanchez' review of July 2014. Margaret Atwood has been one of my favorite authors for a long time, so it almost hurts me to say that I would have rated MaddAddam only 3 stars for most of the book. I mean, how many witty wisecracks can a person handle when nothing substantial is happening story-wise? The ending was wonderful though. If mankind's fate would unfold in this way, I find it a very comforting idea. So, Margaret, thanks for that truly uplifting ending! A
...more

After finishing this book, I read both the good and bad reviews to help sort out my own thinking on Margaret Atwood's conclusion to the 'Oryx and Crake' trilogy. There is truth in the bad reviews. If I was expecting the deep and complicated world of 'Oryx and Crake' or the 'Year of the Flood' to continue in this novel, I would be disappointed. If I wanted to continue getting to know the previous main characters (Jimmy, Ren, Amanda or Toby), I would be sad how one dimensional or not at all presen
...more

Damn this was a brilliant series :) I'm tempted to give this five stars because the whole thing was so satisfying overall. But alas, this rating is for this book only.
I'm so glad that I finished this series, despite the fact that I wasn't totally blown away by Oryx & Crake. It's really a good series and it takes reading all three to get the whole picture. Brilliant triology, brilliant audio, brilliant narration. I just loved it. ...more
I'm so glad that I finished this series, despite the fact that I wasn't totally blown away by Oryx & Crake. It's really a good series and it takes reading all three to get the whole picture. Brilliant triology, brilliant audio, brilliant narration. I just loved it. ...more

Before I read this book I read or reread “Oryx and Crake” and “The Year of the Flood”. If I hadn’t I don’t know that I’d have understood or been as interested in “MaddAdam”. It’s not a stand alone book in my opinion. I thought the trilogy overall was good though I’d rate “Oryx” three stars and “Flood” as five stars. “MaddAdam” had some great parts and some slow parts, mostly the sections where Atwood ‘told’ rather than showed the action. The parts concerning the storytelling to the Crakers espec
...more

MaddAddam was a dismal end to the MaddAddam trilogy - a very disappointing book by a very distinguished writer. Oryx and Crake was a wonderful book: a story of sweeping scope, lyrically written and character that were unforgettable. Year of the Flood drove the story to new levels, gave depth to the parable and, again, created some wonderful characters (Zeb, Toby and Adam) to join Oryx, Crake and Jimmy from the Crake book.
MaddAddam does nothing to extend the story; the characters are drab, lifele ...more
MaddAddam does nothing to extend the story; the characters are drab, lifele ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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2021 Reading Chal...:
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16 | 34 | Mar 29, 2020 08:50AM | |
FABClub (Female A...: * MaddAddam discussion | 2 | 31 | Jan 15, 2018 07:19PM | |
Need to read previous books? | 9 | 255 | Jan 18, 2017 07:29AM | |
Alternate Realiti...: Maddaddam | 5 | 60 | Dec 01, 2016 08:04AM | |
David Estes Fans ...: Buddy Read of MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood | 20 | 24 | Aug 19, 2016 10:12AM |
Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, childr ...more
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, childr ...more
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